Displays Decoded: All the Types of Laptop Screens, Explained

28.10.2023 - 18:04 / pcmag.com

When it comes to buying a laptop, the display has never been more important. An indispensable part of the modern computer, the screen type can affect not only the visual quality of a laptop but also its portability, battery life, and even the core functionality of your machine. Whether you're a creative professional seeking color accuracy, a gamer craving smooth visuals, or a student desiring an immersive multimedia experience, the right laptop screen can make all the difference.

But that means knowing what's what amongst a dizzying array of options. From screen size to aspect ratio, from panel type to color accuracy, we're here to help take the confusion out of the laptop screens conversation. In this guide, we'll look at the most popular display technologies, the terms you need to understand, and which displays are best for specific use cases.

From the individual parts of a display to the aspects of picture quality that differentiate a good panel from a bad one, here's what you need to know to find an excellent laptop screen.

Knowing the anatomy of laptop screens will help you understand not only how it works, but why some features are more important than others for the best visual experience. Setting aside the most technical aspects, you'll find three main parts to any laptop display: the panel, the backlight, and (on many laptops) the digitizer.

Panel: The panel is the foundation of a laptop display, determining its overall quality and characteristics. Different types of panels, such as IPS (in-plane switching), TN (twisted nematic), VA (vertical alignment), and OLED (organic light-emitting diode), contain their own mix of pluses and minuses. (More on these later.) Things like viewing angles, color reproduction, and response times vary depending on panel technology.

Backlight: The backlight illuminates the display and affects aspects like brightness and contrast. Most laptops today use LED (light-emitting diode) backlights, providing energy efficiency and precise control over brightness. OLED screens are an exception—they're self-emissive displays, meaning the panel produces its own light without needing a separate backlight.

Each screen has additional diffuser layers between the panel and backlight, but these are never detailed in product specs and won't impact your buying decision. But you have one more feature to consider when choosing your next laptop: touch.

Digitizer: Touch-screen laptops have an additional digitizer layer added to the display, allowing for interaction through touch gestures. A digitizer won't change the visual performance of a laptop, but it will change how you interact with the PC, allowing touch and often pen input. The only downside is that touch capability usually comes